# Buy a "premium" pipe ?



## japacheze (Feb 5, 2010)

I have a nice collections of pipes... "affordable"... Savinelli, Peterson, Stanwell, Neerup, etc. What do I gain by adding a $200+ pipe to my collection.

Thanks.


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## Natedogg (Jun 21, 2010)

A really effing nice pipe?


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## ChronoB (Nov 4, 2007)

japacheze said:


> I have a nice collections of pipes... "affordable"... Savinelli, Peterson, Stanwell, Neerup, etc. What do I gain by adding a $200+ pipe to my collection.
> 
> Thanks.


Potentially a better smoke. More money usually means higher quality briar that has been more thoroughly seasoned. It can mean hand made, as opposed to machine made.

Once you're ready and have the money I think it is worth investing in some more expensive pipes. You might find that your smokes really improve. If nothing else, you'll no longer have to wonder about it. And if you don't find them particularly better, and if you're perfectly happy with under-$200 pipes, then there's no need to spend more. You can always sell unwanted pipes on ebay or a consignment shop.


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## ruralhipster (Jan 15, 2010)

Remember sometimes ignorance is bliss. If you are more than happy with the pipes you have adding a high end pipe could do one of two things: first it could be a terrible smoker and you will be upset that wasted 3 or 4 pipes worth of money on a single bad smoker (this is most unlikely), however what if that pipe blows all your old favorites out of the water and now you will be end up having to supplement your income Fred Garvin style to satisfy your love of the high end briar. 

Most likely however you will have a nice premium pipe you enjoy and smoke in your rotation. 

Like most hobby's the incremental increase in quality with price tends towards diminishing returns at a certain point.


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## japacheze (Feb 5, 2010)

Thanks for the comments so far. Let me light up a bowl while I ponder this.

I seek the ultimate smoke  , but wonder what path I may treading.


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## Hellraiser (Mar 17, 2006)

On my Dunhills, I would say I get better engineering and design and flawless briar. The grain on most Dunhills may not be very striking until you get to the very expensive DR models but every smooth Dunhill I have is absolutey flawless - no fills, no pits, no problems of any kind, can't say that about my Petersons, GBDs, or Stanwells.

On the engineering, my bent Dunhills have no problem passing a pipe cleaner to the bowl, once again, can't say the same for my bent Petersons and Stanwells (some do with a little play, some won't at all). The draft holes on my Dunhills are at the bottom of the bowl, cheaper pipes sometimes have the draft hole on the side of the bowl, so better drilling is obvious. Also seem to get much better QC, the new Dunhills I have bought were absolutely perfect, I've seen new Petersons that should have never left the factory. 

Now all of that doesn't really mean that my Dunhills smoke any better than my cheaper pipes. I have a Stanwell, and even an old Dr. Grabow and some Petersons that smoke as well as any of my Dunhills, regardless of their lackings.


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## strongirish (Dec 11, 2008)

I would say yes, you need to experience one and see for yourself. My Jan P's are a pleasure to smoke even on first smoke.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

Hellraiser said:


> On my Dunhills, I would say I get better engineering and design and fThe draft holes on my Dunhills are at the bottom of the bowl, cheaper pipes sometimes have the draft hole on the side of the bowl, so better drilling is obvious.


Personally, I think that's the killer defect in a pipe. Furthermore, I am completely baffled as to why this happens, especially with a "good" pipe maker. I have a Peterson's Flame Grain that I have finally given up on. Just a terrible pipe. Why? The hole is not at the bottom of the bowl; I have tried to fill the void with pipe mud, but it just doesn't last because the volume is so large. Just a wretched job of making a pipe and one I can't see making by any sensible quality control. I would never buy another Peterson's, I don't care how many good ones are out there. They won't ever get my business again, period.

But what makes this so annoying to me is that I cannot for the life of me figure out how you can miss that far. Seems to me you could completely nail it every time, given the right tools, even if you didn't know what you were doing. It appears to be an error that should only rarely come up, even in a factory made pipe (or possibly even less likely if things were automated). Not ever having made a pipe, I'm sure I "don't get it", but it just seems like there would be a way to deal with drilling the hole accurately that didn't screw up half the briar supply.

I admit, I have no skills at this sort of thing AT ALL. I suppose there are also people who say, "What's so hard about hitting a golf ball?"


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## indigosmoke (Sep 1, 2009)

My advice would be to get a quality estate Castello or Cavicchi from a reputable dealer like Marty Pulvers if you want to try out a high end pipe. I can almost guarentee you won't regret it. The quality of briar used and the craftsmanship are simply top notch. If you somehow get a lemon (possible with a pipe from any maker as crafting a pipe is as much art as science IMO) and don't like the pipe you'll be able to sell it for most, if not all, of what you paid for it so there is really very little risk and you'll get to experience what smoking a high end pipe brings to the table. For the record, I love my Peterson pipes. I have a 2010 Christmas, a 1948 Killarney and a 70's era Kapruf all of which are great smokers and my Savinelli Bing's Favorite is also excellent, so if you've got nice Petes or Savs that smoke well don't be expecting a pipe smoking epiphany. Still, there is something just a little bit special about these high end pipes, and you certainly have to go through fewer of them to find a real winner. And I have to say, my Castello and Cavicchi pipes are something special indeed. Give a Cavicchi some serious thought. I think he represents one of the best values in high end pipes on the market and is seriously underappreciated. His pipes in every way are on par with Castello IMO.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

indigosmoke said:


> And I have to say, my Castello and Cavicchi pipes are something special indeed. Give a Cavicchi some serious thought. I think he represents one of the best values in high end pipes on the market and is seriously underappreciated. His pipes in every way are on par with Castello IMO.


They do look great! But, wouldn't you know it, my previous question just got more interesting. From the smokingpipes bio, "...and drilled with a uniqe tool which makes it impossible to not be dead-center at the bottom." Yeah. So how has this "uniqe [sic] tool" escaped everybody else to this point?


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## User Name (Feb 11, 2011)

freestoke said:


> They do look great! But, wouldn't you know it, my previous question just got more interesting. From the smokingpipes bio, "...and drilled with a uniqe tool which makes it impossible to not be dead-center at the bottom." Yeah. So how has this "uniqe [sic] tool" escaped everybody else to this point?


Alien Technology. :hat:


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## indigosmoke (Sep 1, 2009)

freestoke said:


> They do look great! But, wouldn't you know it, my previous question just got more interesting. From the smokingpipes bio, "...and drilled with a uniqe tool which makes it impossible to not be dead-center at the bottom." Yeah. So how has this "uniqe [sic] tool" escaped everybody else to this point?


That's a good question. I've read that as well. Cavicchi is an interesting man in many ways, no doubt about it. Guinness Book World Record slow smoker, full time farmer, and he still manages to make some of the best pipes in the world. For the record, the draft hole in my Cavicchi is dead on and the draw is the best of any pipe I've ever owned. As much as I like my other pipes, from now on when I buy a pipe from another maker I'll always be thinking, "Yeah, but I could get another Cavicchi." He's become the standard by which I judge all other pipes. And thanks to Chad (Ultramag) for turning me on to him.


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## CWL (Mar 25, 2010)

Think of pipes like a car or even a pair of jeans. The price range of these will run anywhere from -incredibly cheap to WTF?- in costs. Yes, there will be better materials, craftsmanship, so your smoke should theoretically smoke better, but a lot of the enjoyment comes from the ownership of a rare pipe with possibly distinctive design features.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

CWL said:


> Think of pipes like a car ... a lot of the enjoyment comes from the ownership of a rare pipe with possibly distinctive design features.


I feel like I'm listening to the 1970s Cadillac versus Rolls Royce argument. The Cadillac rides better, goes faster, better reliability, better radio, better air conditioning and heating, more comfortable leather seats, handier controls, et hoc genus omne, but the Rolls is a ROLLS!!

But back to the car : pipe analogy...BottomDraw:WheelAlignment. Or maybe:Transmission. Whatever, it's a fundamental feature that has to work and is shared by both low and high end cars. A badly drilled pipe is like a transmission that doesn't leave 2nd gear, acceptable in neither a Lamborghini nor a Ford Focus. Since a pipe has so few "moving parts", I prefer a comparison with a fireplace. What if the grate were a solid metal box, with air holes starting halfway up? You'd never burn the bottom of the burn pile. As I said before, it's a killer to have the draught hole above the bottom of the bowl. Ruinous.

Here we have Calicchi, who for some mysterious reason, an irate farmer who got impatient waiting for a pipe so he by God he'd do it his OWN self!, decides to start making perfect pipes on his farm in his spare time. He knows, as any observant pipe smoker knows, that the hole has to hit dab splat right THERE, so he jerry rigs some implement out of old tools in the barn so he can do that. Oui la!

Come ON! How can that be? Why don't ALL the pipe makers hit dead center, just like all the auto makers make transmissions that actually shift into third gear? I do not get it. I don't buy the "artisan" argument in the context of the draught hole. Your car has to be drivable, no matter how beautiful it might be, otherwise it's merely a work of art for display purposes only.

I'll never forgive Peterson for letting my Flame Grain into circulation. When I bought it, I was not yet an observant pipe smoker, apparently. I had never encountered this before, for one thing. But Let the Buyer Beware should not apply to a new pipe from a reputable maker. The pipe should shift into third gear and burn the whole bowl down, aka, be drilled to the bottom. Peterson's might make a lot of great pipes, but it apparently has no pride in their product at all letting this CLEARLY inferior piece of crap out the door as anything but a second.


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## dmkerr (Oct 27, 2008)

freestoke said:


> Come ON! How can that be? Why don't ALL the pipe makers hit dead center, just like all the auto makers make transmissions that actually shift into third gear? I do not get it.


Because most pipe makers are small-business artisans AND they only get one shot at the draft hole. Mess it up even a little bit and you have a messed up draft hole. And then the pipemaker has a choice - he can make the best of it or throw away an otherwise flawless (or at least serviceable) piece of briar. With the cost of briar what it is and the rarity of a flaw-free piece, they can't afford not to make a pipe out of it.

Even bigger pipe companies can ill-afford to toss one usable piece of briar.

I've seen very expensive pipes will drill holes that would make a grown pipesmoker weep in frustration. Somebody buys them, however. Sometimes you, sometimes me. So it's all worth it to them. It used to be in the "olden days" when briar was plentiful that you wouldn't find an expensive pipe with even the slightest flaw. Today I've seen $1000 Danish and German made pipes with sandpits.

Then again, some pipe companies like Dunhill have tossed pipes that you and I would jump on in a New York minute. It just all depends on the company, their integrity, their priorities, their cash position, etc etc.


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## CaptainEnormous (Sep 30, 2010)

I'm curious (as I'm sure are others) to see the flawed drilling job.

Playing the diplomat, I'll say that:

- From the perspective of the maker: Working with briar isn't like working with a man-made material. Many higher end pipes are fashioned (at least to a point) without drilling the draft hole. This is done so you can figure out which parts of the briar are best for smoking, and include them in the final pipe. Only after rough shaping would a draft hole get drilled. That doesn't excuse a bad drill job. . .but it does speak to the difficulty of an every-time-perfect bowl-/draft-hole tool. "Freehand" doesn't just describe the way a pipe is shaped. Any freehand shape must also be drilled, to some extent, freehand.
- From the buyer's POV: A bad drill job can definitely effect the way a pipe smokes. And someone as established as Peterson really shouldn't be putting their name on a badly drilled piece of briar. Think we can all agree on that.


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## indigosmoke (Sep 1, 2009)

dmkerr said:


> Because most pipe makers are small-business artisans AND they only get one shot at the draft hole. Mess it up even a little bit and you have a messed up draft hole. And then the pipemaker has a choice - he can make the best of it or throw away an otherwise flawless (or at least serviceable) piece of briar. With the cost of briar what it is and the rarity of a flaw-free piece, they can't afford not to make a pipe out of it.
> 
> Even bigger pipe companies can ill-afford to toss one usable piece of briar.
> 
> ...


Well said. You've hit the nail on the head. Peterson is a perfect example of this in two ways. One, they sell 2,000 pipes a week world wide so they're not likely to change the way they do things (although to be fair they have put a greater emphasis on quality control recently and it's beginning to show and they have good customer service.) On the other hand, the older pre-Republic Petes are a completely different animals from the new ones, in my experience. Even many of their so called budget lines of the time can put many of the so called high end pipes of today to shame in terms of craftsmanship and briar quality. That's actually one of the things that I find impressive about Castello. Greg Pease (who knows his Castellos) feels the new pipes are actually *better* than the old pipes. You can't say that about many pipe makers. And I'll use this post as another reason to give kudos to Marty Pulvers. One of the reasons I like buying from him online is that if the drilling is off he tells you in his descriptions, no surprises there.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

indigosmoke said:


> On the other hand, the older pre-Republic Petes are a completely different animals from the new ones, in my experience. Even many of their so called budget lines of the time can put many of the so called high end pipes of today to shame in terms of craftsmanship and briar quality.


How far back is that? I bought this Flame Grain in 1979-80.

No one has explained this "uniqe [sic] tool" to me yet. I cannot bring myself to believe that this guy, after a couple of centuries of thousands of people thinking about the problem, can out of the blue figure out how to drill the hole accurately. I CAN believe that "artisans" don't ever learn the "trick", but it would seem that industrial espionage would suffice for any big pipe maker to have the necessary devices to do the trick. Why throw out ANY of the briar as the result of a missing? (I alluded to this earlier.) Why can't you (provided you're not a part time artist pipe maker who really doesn't know how to accurately drill air holes) be accurate with KNOWN techniques? I don't get it.


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## Hellraiser (Mar 17, 2006)

freestoke said:


> Personally, I think that's the killer defect in a pipe. Furthermore, I am completely baffled as to why this happens, especially with a "good" pipe maker. I have a Peterson's Flame Grain that I have finally given up on. Just a terrible pipe. Why? The hole is not at the bottom of the bowl; I have tried to fill the void with pipe mud, but it just doesn't last because the volume is so large. Just a wretched job of making a pipe and one I can't see making by any sensible quality control. I would never buy another Peterson's, I don't care how many good ones are out there. They won't ever get my business again, period.
> 
> But what makes this so annoying to me is that I cannot for the life of me figure out how you can miss that far. Seems to me you could completely nail it every time, given the right tools, even if you didn't know what you were doing. It appears to be an error that should only rarely come up, even in a factory made pipe (or possibly even less likely if things were automated). Not ever having made a pipe, I'm sure I "don't get it", but it just seems like there would be a way to deal with drilling the hole accurately that didn't screw up half the briar supply.
> 
> I admit, I have no skills at this sort of thing AT ALL. I suppose there are also people who say, "What's so hard about hitting a golf ball?"


Yep, I agree. Dunhill doesn't seem to have problems getting the drilling right, I have 5 Dunhills with perfectly centered draft holes at the bottom. With lesser brands it seems it's just luck of the draw, where with Dunhill and other high end pipe makers it's to be expected, but I guess that's why they cost more. And it's a price I'm willing to pay, I have a couple dozen great smokers in my collection now, will only be adding more high end pipes from now on. I'd rather add 1 or 2 Dunhills or Castellos a year to my collection then add a handful of cheaper pipes every month, it's all about the quality for me now, not quantity.

A friend of mine recently bought a high-end Peterson, if there is such a thing - it was quite expensive anyway, a gold spigot of some sort, drilling was not great and it had an obvious fill in the bowl. He was not happy at all and in the end sent it back and got a Dunhill instead for about the same price that was absolutely perfect. I'll not buy another Peterson without being able to inspect it for drilling, fills, etc as it seems it is a crapshoot and then the only Petersons I really want at this point are the Mark Twain models and mostly because I like Mark Twain.


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## indigosmoke (Sep 1, 2009)

freestoke said:


> How far back is that? I bought this Flame Grain in 1979-80.


pre 1949. Sadly, the late 70's very early 80's were probably the nadir of Peterson pipe quality from what I've read.


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## indigosmoke (Sep 1, 2009)

Hellraiser said:


> A friend of mine recently bought a high-end Peterson, if there is such a thing - it was quite expensive anyway, a gold spigot of some sort, drilling was not great and it had an obvious fill in the bowl. He was not happy at all and in the end sent it back and got a Dunhill instead for about the same price that was absolutely perfect. I'll not buy another Peterson without being able to inspect it for drilling, fills, etc as it seems it is a crapshoot and then the only Petersons I really want at this point are the Mark Twain models and mostly because I like Mark Twain.


I like my Petersons but I can't see spending $200 for one. For that money you can get a nice new Cavicchi, or any number of excellent estate pipes. The only Petersons I'd personally spend more than $100 on would be a pre-Republic. But they sell plenty of new pipes from their high end lines, so I must be the exception and not the rule when it comes to Peterson fans (of which I am one.)

I also find it interesting that Dunhill is getting a lot of good comments in this thread. Most of what I've read on Puff says that anything made after the 60's is overpriced for what you get. Hmmmm...interesting. It's amazing how subjective this all is.


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## CWL (Mar 25, 2010)

Hellraiser said:


> Yep, I agree. Dunhill doesn't seem to have problems getting the drilling right, I have 5 Dunhills with perfectly centered draft holes at the bottom. With lesser brands it seems it's just luck of the draw, where with Dunhill and other high end pipe makers it's to be expected, but I guess that's why they cost more. And it's a price I'm willing to pay, I have a couple dozen great smokers in my collection now, will only be adding more high end pipes from now on. I'd rather add 1 or 2 Dunhills or Castellos a year to my collection then add a handful of cheaper pipes every month, it's all about the quality for me now, not quantity.
> 
> A friend of mine recently bought a high-end Peterson, if there is such a thing - it was quite expensive anyway, a gold spigot of some sort, drilling was not great and it had an obvious fill in the bowl. He was not happy at all and in the end sent it back and got a Dunhill instead for about the same price that was absolutely perfect. I'll not buy another Peterson without being able to inspect it for drilling, fills, etc as it seems it is a crapshoot and then the only Petersons I really want at this point are the Mark Twain models and mostly because I like Mark Twain.


I haven't been happy with Petersons lately, my last 2 were NIB but one came with a loose stem and the other one came with a loose silver band that spun and popped-off the briar. I really feel that they don't care much for QC.


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## Hellraiser (Mar 17, 2006)

indigosmoke said:


> I like my Petersons but I can't see spending $200 for one. For that money you can get a nice new Cavicchi, or any number of excellent estate pipes. The only Petersons I'd personally spend more than $100 on would be a pre-Republic. But they sell plenty of new pipes from their high end lines, so I must be the exception and not the rule when it comes to Peterson fans (of which I am one.)


Yeah, me neither apparantly. Even though I want a Mark Twain - everytime I think about buying one, I just can't seem to pull the trigger on it and end up getting another Dunhill or in the case of last month, a oil-cured twin bore Radice, which also had a perfectly drilled draft hole.


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## indigosmoke (Sep 1, 2009)

Hellraiser said:


> Yeah, me neither apparantly. Even though I want a Mark Twain - everytime I think about buying one, I just can't seem to pull the trigger on it and end up getting another Dunhill or in the case of last month, a oil-cured twin bore Radice, which also had a perfectly drilled draft hole.


I've got my eye on an estate Radice at the moment. Never heard anything but good things about them, particularly the oil cured.


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## Hellraiser (Mar 17, 2006)

indigosmoke said:


> I also find it interesting that Dunhill is getting a lot of good comments in this thread. Most of what I've read on Puff says that anything made after the 60's is overpriced for what you get. Hmmmm...interesting. It's amazing how subjective this all is.


I've always felt that Dunhills are overpriced, but they sure know how to make a pipe. Seems like everything I like is over-priced, aged scotch, custom 1911 handguns, precision long rifles. I prefer the older Dunhills from the 50's and 60's and will be adding more of those to my collection but I had to buy a couple new ones just because. The presentation of Dunhill pipes is quite impressive when you buy new, very nice boxes and suede pipe bag is a nice touch.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

indigosmoke said:


> pre 1949. Sadly, the late 70's very early 80's were probably the nadir of Peterson pipe quality from what I've read.


Well, there ya go! :tu I would not question it!


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## Savvy (Jun 23, 2007)

I have begun to start change my collection from quantity to quality as well. I decided to give a higher grade pipe a try, and it seems to me a more sound investment. Provided you take care of your pipes, you'll get a stellar smoke, although I'm sure there could be the potential to get a lemon, but a far less one at that. There are a multitude of great artisans at the $200-500 range. Makers I would personally suggest from my own experiences would be Cavicchi and Rad Davis. I have just added a Castello too, and I expect it to be along the same lines.

A note worth making, as far as saving some money, if you want to try out a Cavicchi, you can either look at his dark brown stained smooth pipes, or his rusticated selections. Both are great. His classification (C, CC, CCC, etc.) only is placed on his smooth light stained pipes, so the darker ones go for a lot cheaper even though the quality of grain and craftsmanship is still the same.

Another benefit to adding a premium pipe is that you may use a pipe maker where you are able to design the pipe to your specifications. I know that Rad Davis does this, and I may inquire about having him make me a pipe in the future.

I'd say if you're seriously considering it, save up a few dollars for a couple months and once you find something that catches your eye, you can try out a higher grade. I can almost 100% guarantee you won't regret the decision. Although your wallet may hate you a little, as the pipe slope will certainly become steeper...


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## dmkerr (Oct 27, 2008)

Hellraiser said:


> I've always felt that Dunhills are overpriced,


If you ever get the chance, take a tour of their production facility or talk to someone who has. You may change your mind. They (or at least they used to) have more quality checks than Boeing. Very little gets out of that factory that isn't spot-on perfect (pun intended).

I've told this story before so those that have heard it can skip it. When I sold pipes from the mid-80's through the mid-90's, I had occasion to find one improperly drilled Dunhill out of the hundreds if not thousands I saw, both new and estate. I called them and I thought the poor guy was going to start crying, he was so beside himself with embarrassment. He replaced the pipe and sent me a rather expensive pipe tool and one of those cool "gift packs" of Dunhill pipe tobacco - all the Dunhill blends is cute little 3/4 oz tins. Wish I still had 'em, even though I may be one of the few schmucks on this forum that had the misfortune of smoking Dunhill Golden Hours tobacco. uke:


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## User Name (Feb 11, 2011)

dmkerr said:


> If you ever get the chance, take a tour of their production facility or talk to someone who has. You may change your mind. They (or at least they used to) have more quality checks than Boeing. Very little gets out of that factory that isn't spot-on perfect (pun intended).
> 
> I've told this story before so those that have heard it can skip it. When I sold pipes from the mid-80's through the mid-90's, I had occasion to find one improperly drilled Dunhill out of the hundreds if not thousands I saw, both new and estate. I called them and I thought the poor guy was going to start crying, he was so beside himself with embarrassment. He replaced the pipe and sent me a rather expensive pipe tool and one of those cool "gift packs" of Dunhill pipe tobacco - all the Dunhill blends is cute little 3/4 oz tins. Wish I still had 'em, even though I may be one of the few schmucks on this forum that had the misfortune of smoking Dunhill Golden Hours tobacco. uke:


Dunhill had an part of an episode of "how it is made" It was really cool, I caught it on tv one night.


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## dmkerr (Oct 27, 2008)

indigosmoke said:


> That's actually one of the things that I find impressive about Castello. Greg Pease (who knows his Castellos) feels the new pipes are actually *better* than the old pipes. You can't say that about many pipe makers.


You can hardly say that most pipemakers stuff today is AS GOOD as it used to, let alone better. I don't know about Castello being better now - I figure Pease knows better than I - but that's another brand that I've never seen drilling flaws in. Pre-transition Barlings are the only other brand, so there are 3 that I can think of offhand, including Dunhill, that put out off-drilled pipes only by rare accident.


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## dmkerr (Oct 27, 2008)

User Name said:


> Dunhill had an part of an episode of "how it is made" It was really cool, I caught it on tv one night.


No kidding? That IS cool! Wish I had seen it.


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## dmkerr (Oct 27, 2008)

freestoke said:


> No one has explained this "uniqe [sic] tool" to me yet.


That's because I have no clue, and because I'm as skeptical about it as you are. It may be simple marketing. Cavicchi does make great pipes, though.

I thought of an example to my response to you from yesterday. I passed up an opportunity to buy a Savinelli Guibleo D'Oro (literally, Golden Jubilee) pipe years ago because the draft hole was too high. However, this pipe had the tightest, straightest grain I've ever seen on a pipe (not including some I've seen in pictures). Despite the imperfection, this pipe HAD to be made and sold, as it was an incredible specimen of the grain falling into perfect place on a simple straight billiard. No doubt someone bought it and loves it. It was beautiful, and I can only console myself by saying that it probably gurgled.


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## User Name (Feb 11, 2011)

dmkerr said:


> No kidding? That IS cool! Wish I had seen it.


http://science.discovery.com/videos/how-its-made-7-smoking-pipes.html

Here's a link, like I said, it was just a part of the episode, but still pretty cool.


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## dmkerr (Oct 27, 2008)

Ok, ignore my comment on your recent RG feedback. Thought I'd mess with you a bit just for giggles. 

Thanks for the link. :thumb:


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## User Name (Feb 11, 2011)

dmkerr said:


> Ok, ignore my comment on your recent RG feedback. Thought I'd mess with you a bit just for giggles.
> 
> Thanks for the link. :thumb:


haha no problem. I didn't think it would be online, and I was too entranced to think about recording it.


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## Hermit (Aug 5, 2008)

Past $200 you're buying a work or art.
I'm not sayin' that's a *bad *thing.
I like pretty pipes!


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## indigosmoke (Sep 1, 2009)

dmkerr said:


> You can hardly say that most pipemakers stuff today is AS GOOD as it used to, let alone better. I don't know about Castello being better now - I figure Pease knows better than I - but that's another brand that I've never seen drilling flaws in. Pre-transition Barlings are the only other brand, so there are 3 that I can think of offhand, including Dunhill, that put out off-drilled pipes only by rare accident.


Thanks for the info about Dunhill, Castello and the pre-Trans Barlings. I've got 2 Castellos. Looks like I'm going to have to add some Barlings and Dunhills to my collection. Not exactly a sacrifice, as I love their esthetic.

On another note, why do you think the newer Dunhill's get such a bad rap as being overpriced? I've read a lot of disparaging posts on various forums on blogs the 1970 and 80's pipes in particular. Just a lot of Dunhill haters out there because of their pricing?


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## Hermit (Aug 5, 2008)

Hermit said:


> Past $200 you're buying a work or art.
> I'm not sayin' that's a *bad *thing.
> I like pretty pipes!


That was supposed to say "work *of *art."
Why can't I edit?


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## dmkerr (Oct 27, 2008)

indigosmoke said:


> On another note, why do you think the newer Dunhill's get such a bad rap as being overpriced? I've read a lot of disparaging posts on various forums on blogs the 1970 and 80's pipes in particular. Just a lot of Dunhill haters out there because of their pricing?


Probably. I only have one Dunhill left, and it'll probably get sold when I get off my ass and clean it up. It's a sandblast ODA and it appears to be from the 1990's. It's a perfect pipe - I just don't smoke briars much anymore.

I've seen tons of '70's and '80's Dunhills and I haven't found any problems. I'm no expert on their pipes but, again, seeing their operation would likely change peoples minds on their pricing. Then again, the briar used these days (and since probably the mid-80's) is not as old to begin with as the older pipes used. Old briar is becoming depleted. The heath trees are being chopped up faster than they are planted, and of course it takes a briar burl a long time just to become hard enough to be suitable for a pipe.

Dunhill pricing? Sheesh! Tell those folks to take a look at some of the newer Danish, German and Russian carvers prices. Dunhills are still cheaper than a lot of pipes. Some people bitch about the lack of grain in a lot of Dunhills, but they need to remember that they make old, reliable traditional English shapes. On a freehand or semi-freehand, the carver can cut around the flaws and shape the pipe accordingly. On a standard shape, the shape dictates. Any flaws mean the pipe is discarded (if it's a Dunhill, anyway.).


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